I don't go to Arby's all that much, just when I am traveling. I've noticed the last few times that the 'help yourself' bar is gone and sauce or ketchup is the only thing available. There used to be a place to get pickles or raw onion and the like and it's not offered any more. What's the deal?

I've never in my life seen pickles or onion at an Arby's. Our local ones have a serve yourself station with four sauces, but they've taken away the packets because people were taking too many. If you serve yourself, you have to put your sauces in little paper cups. They will give you packets at the counter, but not very many.

I've never in my life seen pickles or onion at an Arby's. Our local ones have a serve yourself station with four sauces, but they've taken away the packets because people were taking too many. If you serve yourself, you have to put your sauces in little paper cups. They will give you packets at the counter, but not very many.

Believe it or not................My granddaughter wanted to go to Arby's for their spicy curly fries. Of course, I went along with it.While there, I watched a man take a container from his pocket and fill it with the Horsey sauce.............It took him quite a while and employees were watching, but not a word was said.

As a former Arby's employee, I can't remember ever having condiments other than Arby/Horsey sauce and maybe Ketchup.

Ah, but can you remember when Arby's served actual, genuine roasted steamship round of beef (not the formed/compressed stuff they have now)?? They did, you know--and back then I LOVED their sandwiches. Now, I still like them because I put so much horsey and Arby sauce on them that's all I can taste and the "beef" is purely a structural platform to hold the sauce.

I don't remember a fixins bar during my peak patronage of Arby's back in the 80's.

I'd like to ask the OP if he is perhaps confusing Arby's with Roy Rogers? That chain still has a fixin's bar, at least out at Shirley, Long Island, NY. The only other chain I remember with a fixins bar around here is Nathan's

Originally posted by David_NYCI don't remember a fixins bar during my peak patronage of Arby's back in the 80's.

I'd like to ask the OP if he is perhaps confusing Arby's with Roy Rogers? That chain still has a fixin's bar, at least out at Shirley, Long Island, NY. The only other chain I remember with a fixins bar around here is Nathan's

My thoughts exactly. Roy's is making a comeback in the Frederick, Md area and has the fixin's bar. I also have NO recollection of one at Arby's.

Well, it is mostly beef, but is most certainly not anything close to a "roast". "Delicious" is a matter of opinion. My description would be "disgusting" (granted, I haven't eaten in an Arby's in over a decade).

Nope, not confused with Roy's place David. I've never been to a Roy's. We do frequent trips back and forth to Pittsburgh and sometimes stop at Arby's in Carlisle (81 to the Pike) or one nearer to Allentown (off 78). We started doing these trips in the late 90's while the son-in-law was in school. After graduation they moved to the Hudson valley for about 5 years and now are back in Pittsburgh (Mt Lebanon) so we're doing the trips again. I recall the fixin's from the earlier trips I think. There is a local place in Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn with a similar sandwich. They had a fixin's bar and I was used to putting onion on a roast beef and cheese sandwich and was pleased that I had the same opportunity at the Arby's in PA. BTW, the place in Brooklyn is Roll n Roaster and their roast beef is the real thing like Arby's used to be, I guess.

Originally posted by kozel BTW, the place in Brooklyn is Roll n Roaster and their roast beef is the real thing like Arby's used to be, I guess.

http://www.rollnroaster.com/index.html

Roll N' Roaster is AWESOME. I was very excited when they opened a branch on 3rd Ave and 11th Street in Manhattan, right in my neigborhood. It only lasted about a year, I was never quite sure why they failed. It was generally crowded and there's about a billion college students in the area.

OK, I think we are making some progress here. Kozel narrowed down the Arbys' to Pennsylvania. Someone over at Slickdeals, registered as living in Pennsylvania, also posted recently that the onion and pickle bar is gone at his Arby's. Now, all we need is a former Arby's employee in Pennsylvania to spill the beans on why the fixin's bar really was removed.

I'm surprised Roll and Roaster is not on the rosters of Roadfood places. One problem is that they are in a dead end - Sheephead Bay, Brooklyn. I used to go there when visiting a friend who used to live in the neighborhood. Also felt I got good value for money.

I'm surprised Roll and Roaster is not on the rosters of Roadfood places. One problem is that they are in a dead end - Sheephead Bay, Brooklyn. I used to go there when visiting a friend who used to live in the neighborhood. Also felt I got good value for money.

Actually they are on Emmons Ave; just a hop off and back onto the Belt Parkway. If roast beef isn't your desire, there's a ton of sea food places there.

Has anyone tried any of the Arby's stuff that is not made w/ the roast beef? Like the BLT or....????.Joe

Yeah. I've had their market fresh sandwich. For fast food, it's not bad. Certainly, much better in flavor than their roast beefs or a McD/BK/Wendy hamburger.

But, "Market Fresh" is just an ad campaighn, the sandwiches are high in calories and fat - making them not too much better healthwise than the roast beef sandwich. But, they don't taste like crap, so when Arby's is the only choice, I say go for the Market Fresh sandwiches.

MH, You are oh so right about the Arby pseudo meat. I remember back when the chain was first starting out in NE Ohio (Youngstown, if my memory stretches back correctly) and they would dangle the roasted piece of actual beef from a chain in an enclosed glass case on the counter, spinning as if on a vertical rotisserie. The places had hardly any seating area & the place would smell wonderful -- especially when you came in from the cold in the winter.

About 10 years after I moved to the FL panhandle they opened an Arby's. I was ecstatic! Couldn't wait to get an RB & potato cake!! Took my first bite and was aghast; absolutely could not finish the sandwich, but I did eat the potato cake. So sad that Julie thinks Arby's RB's are good; she was obviously born too late.

As a passenger on a trip last year to Western NC I found myself at Arby's. Since I'd skipped breakfast to get an early start ... I figured I'd make do with a Coke and whatever fried potato they offered but I was drawn in by the "Market Fresh" corned beef reuben placard in the window and it wasn't bad. Not the best I'd ever had but tolerable and certainly better than any burger McD has to offer.

arby's also has deep-fried fish and chicken sandwiches (at least in the seattle area) that are much better than the competition. the market fresh sandwiches are better than subway (imho..)

i'm old enough to remember the original burien, wa. arby's that looked like something from the jetson's.... both meat slicers were visible in the windows where real roast beef was sliced to order, but because the place was so busy they pretty much ran all of the time. not a single piece of lettuce in the building, it was pretty much sliced beef on buns with fries and soda.. simple usually works the best.

I remember Arby's from the old days too, when there was a slicer and your beef was sliced from a real roast. I still go, now and then. I like the Market Place Reubens and at Lent they have a really good fried fish, but I'm a real sucker for Potato cakes with a ton of horsey sauce. I don't get any of their beefs though.

Arby's is a tragic example of a chain that seriously lost its way. The original style of Arby's shops was peerless. The beef roasts hanging in the glass cases, the wonderful mixture of smells (beef mixed with the cinnamon-cider), the simplicity of the menu. ROOT BEER SHAKES!!!! The "retro-Arby's" is a damn good idea! I'd go there a couple times a week! (As opposed to going a couple times a year to the current Arby's)

Circa 1964 my family used to drive 20 miles to eat at what (I think) was the first Arby's on Rt. 224 in the Youngstown suburb of Boardman, OH. All they served was a REAL roast beef sandwich and a"Jamocha" shake. It was 59 cents for the generous sandwich and 29 cents for the shake. No fries, no Coke, no cheesecake crumbles! At the time this was expensive fast food; McD's burger was 15 cents, fries 12 cents, and "shake" 19 cents. Hell, you could have a three piece fried chicken dinner with fries at Red Barn for 59 cents!

Arby's was a treat. They had a round of roast beef roasting before your eyes. From its immediate predecessor, they would thin slice your sandwich. The Jamocha milk shake was a true milk shake, not a McD "shake".

Sometime in the 1980's Arby's switched to the crap they sell today as "roast beef" (see the recipe above). By that time I had moved to Metro DC and was enjoying Roy Roger's "real roast beef" complete with the "fixin's bar" which the originator of this thread evidently remembers.

Arby's "transition" to what I call predigested beef was the occasion for one of the funniest radio ads I ever heard. Roy Rogers hired a George C. Scott sound-alike who gave a "Patton" speech lamenting "roast beef with binders". The punch line recalled the "You won't have to tell your grandson that you were shoveling sh*t in Lousiana" line with "You won't have to tell your grandson that you spent the great roast beef war picking BINDERS out of your teeth".

I love ARBY's my favorite is the French Dip and Potato Cakes with a Mocha Shake. Can't beat that, allthough sometimes I will opt for the plain large roast beef smothered in Horsey sauce. The ARBY's in Michigan discontinued the "works" bars about 3 years ago! Today is Christmas now, I am bummed ARBY's is closed, I got a craving for ARBY's now.

No offense to you Arbys lovers, but my husband and I wont step foot in one-chopped and formed beef is not our favorite.My feeling is if you have to pile a bunch of sauce on something just to eat it, then the original product cant be good.

I love ARBY's my favorite is the French Dip and Potato Cakes with a Mocha Shake. Can't beat that, allthough sometimes I will opt for the plain large roast beef smothered in Horsey sauce. The ARBY's in Michigan discontinued the "works" bars about 3 years ago! Today is Christmas now, I am bummed ARBY's is closed, I got a craving for ARBY's now.

Oh come guys...there's no accounting for taste...or lack of it..over at our other thread...Arbies is frequently voted the WORST fast food...and that's being nice.....How can anybody...(I include my dog) eat at a place that considers itself a roast beef place when they can't get their signature item edible...I don't care what else they serve...they don't deserve my business then!!!!!You Arbies people probably loved mystery meat in you h.s cafeteria. Lee

Some posters have expressed horror that Arby's now uses chopped and formed beef. I would guess that 90% of the ham, turkey breast and chicken breast cold cuts sold in supermarkets and delis and served in sub shops, etc., is chopped and formed. Take a look at the huge logs of uniform pink ham or white turkey. What part of an actual ham or turkey breast would that be cut from? (answer: none) What's the difference if it is beef? A slice of fine mortadella is chopped and formed. How about the best hot dog or sausage you ever had? Not to mention gyro meat.

I don't personally have any use for Arby's (there is one a mile from my house, and I have never been in it), and I like beef with more character, but I am not afraid of their food. I prefer a place with on-site owners, not run by children, and with more personality. But, if I went to a football-watching party, and there was a table full of the little Arby's sandwiches, I would pick up one to munch with my beer.

I can testify that, as recently as last year, the Arby's near NW Barry Road in Kansas City had a fixins bar. Pepperoncinis, pickle chips, sliced red onion, jalapenos, and banana peppers are what I remember, next to the sauce dispensers. I was surprised when I first saw it - it was more than I expected from Arby's. Good way to double or triple the thickness of a sandwich without making it too much worse for you health-wise (except for the salt of course).

I actually worked at, and briefly managed an Arby's in the Oklahoma City area back in the early 80's. Never in that time did they use anything but a processed Roast. I can't say I have been too impressed with some of the changes over the years. For instance, they used to have a motto, "60 seconds through the drive through." Man, not any more! Maybe 60 minutes. . . Their drive thru service has gone down hill, and the predilection for significant errors in your order has not gotten any better. Customer service? Whats that?

I've still not forgiven them for changing their fries to waffle and curly fries several years back.